Baking in the summer sun and freezing in the winter for 2 years took its toll on Tides Inn's teak. I have to strip down the whole boat, bleach out the black spots and sand down the weathered areas. We did the outside of the gunnales in the boatyard and I was able to take the companionway boards and hatch covers home to work on. But the gunnale tops and cockpit have to be done in the bright sun and 90 degree weather.
I've finished stripping the whole boat. Now need to bleach and sand. Today was a day off as its supposed to rain, so I worked on getting the chart plotter to operate correctly - all is working now that I plugged the NMEA cable into the proper socket (labeled video instead of the network socket I had used). Its a bit of magic that the VHF radio AIS targets show up properly on the chartplotter. Also, confirmed that the air conditioning is working - pumping water and blowing cold air as its supposed to. I imagine it might need recharging after 15 years of use. The refrigerator also works at least enough to start cooling the evaporator. I'm sure it needs recharging. The fresh water tank is near empty and will need cleaning and the hoses bleached out but, at least the pump is working properly.
My web software wont let me put pictures side by side, so you have to scroll down to see them all.
While stripping the sides, I was able to finish off the cockpit teak. I also got the bow section sanded and cleaned up and two coats of Cetol on before the rains came today. The sides can get rained on since I havent bleached and sanded them yet.
Still a lot of work to do on the gunnales, but starting to see progress. It will look very nice in a week or so and I can keep it maintained in the future. Next big cosmetic project is to clean and treat the deck with some magical Woody Wax.
